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The future impact of nanotechnology will depend less on the structures we can fabricate and more on the functions we can engineer. Despite myriad methods for the synthesis of “small” structures, we struggle to direct and control the processes required for the realization of functional systems at colloidal scales (nanometers to microns). By contrast, living organisms harness flows of matter and energy to perform remarkable feats of engineering: they assemble dynamic multiscale materials; they capture and convert energy into complex motions; they regulate tangled networks of chemical reactions; they replicate their structures and processes in exponential fashion. Guided by this inspiration, the team’s research seeks to characterize and control matter outside of thermodynamic equilibrium to enable new materials and technologies with capabilities that rival those of living organisms.

The team’s research focuses on the structure and dynamics of particulate matter (nanocrystals, droplets, etc.) dispersed in liquids with sizes ranging from few nanometers to tens of microns. This scale remains a challenging frontier in material science – often beyond the limits of both top-down fabrication strategies and bottom-up chemical approaches. Materials at these scales offer unique mechanical, electronic, and magnetic properties required by emerging applications in energy capture and storage, photonics, and electronics. The challenge is organizing these materials into functional systems best exemplified by the structural and dynamical complexity of living cells. Such complexity cannot be achieved at equilibrium but instead requires flows of matter and energy to enable smart materials capable of actuating, sensing, adapting, self-repairing, and even self-replicating. The group uses external stimuli (e.g., electric fields, chemical reactions, shear forces) to drive colloidal systems away from equilibrium in order (i) to understand dynamic (dissipative) self-assembly and (ii) to engineer the spontaneous organization of functional materials. Building on their expertise in colloidal interactions, self-assembly, and non-equilibrium phenomena, they integrate experiment with theory and simulation to unlock the mysteries of matter far from equilibrium and realize the full potential of nanotechnology.